I have a 1998 Dodge quad cab 4 x 4 with the 12 v cummins. Back in November I needed a new break rotor. I had a friend that is a certified Dodge technician help me. We replaced the front rotors, brakes , calipers and new wheel bearings with all new Napa stuff. Immediately after we finished, I noticed how off center the front steering wheel was. I then took it to a shop because it was driving really bad and hard to keep it on the road. The shop brought the steering wheel back to where it is suppose to be and put new ball joints, tie rods and a new track bar on it also all Napa stuff. The truck was driving really bad so i took it to the local front end shop and they played with the steering box and made it worse. I took it back and they adjusted it to where it was. I then had a new steering box (Napa) put on it and the truck drives just as bad. I replaced all the tires with new Michelins and it was bad so i had the tires rotated and rebalanced and it is still bad. The truck feels like it pulls to the right and the left and if you turn to left it does not want to come back to center. It was not like this before the brakes ,calipers, bearings and rotors. I also feel when i step on peddle hard it feels funny. Everyone has told me that is not related. No shop seems to know where to go from here and I have spend a lot of money on it. I can not drive the truck the way it is now because it is not safe. Does anyone have a idea? Please email me at NOBLES9596@AOL.COM. Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

 

I'm no front end expert.. but to me it sounds like the front wheel bearings are either loose on the spindle or loose in the hub. The front wheels are essentially floating on the bearings and may cause the tracking problems you are experiencing.

 

since your saying the truck was fine before you did the front end work then go back and double check the work you did... something might have not be tightened either at all or enough and thats where your troubles are coming from. hope you get it figured out and fixed either way, good luck.

 

Maybe I'm a little slow tonight, but I see absolutely NO WAY that the steering wheel position could have changed by replacing the mentioned parts.

 

Are you sure the rotors and or bearings are on tight and straight? I dont remember on a 98 for certain but on my 97 the rotors are held to the hub assy by the wheel studs, couple of months ago I had to change a bearing on the side of the road and didnt get the studs set in tight enough and it did something like yours is doing....my fix was to get out the torque wrench and torque the lug nuts properly...could feel the studs pulling in as I torqued em and afterwords it drove like it used to.

 

You beat me to it kthiemann!

 

X3.............

 

where are you located? we have the best front end truck mechanic on the west coast, if interested in having your truck checked out email me. I would agree with trksrfun most likely loose bearing bolts that hold bearing to knuckle.

 

Thanks for the offer but I'm in the state of Virginia. I need to get it fixed. I love this work horse and dont want to have to sell it. Thank you

 

The first step is to jack up each side and wiggle the tire. See where the slop is.

I find it hard to believe that qualified shops could not find the problem within a few min.

 

I'm probably not to far from ya! Sounds a little bit like a track bar. 90% of those symptoms could be explained by that. Unless the frame is weak at the steering box!

 

PS, If somthing was loose, or installed wrong I'm sure you would have some serious noise. Surely anyone calling their selves a dodge tech could take care of getting it back right without issue. When it went back to the shop someone would have caught that! The only way to get the steering wheel out is to dissasmble somewhere between the steering gear and steering wheel, If you had it that far out with tie-rods you wouldnt be able to complete a turn in one or the other dirrection!

PS, Lug Studs will cause this but there again any respectable shop would be able to look and see that the studs were not pulled through. And IIRC the new hubs from napa come with studs pre-installed!